After the Hoosier swimmers and divers combined for 20 individual wins, three relay wins and four NCAA diving zone qualifying marks, they recorded their first conference win.
The IU men defeated Wisconsin, 184-116, and on the women’s side, the Hoosiers topped the Badgers, 182-118.
“That was a nice win,” IU Coach Ray Looze said. “We’ve had a brutal schedule with swimming against five of the top-10 teams in the last eight weeks. Wisconsin is a good team, but it’s really nice to see both of our teams take care of business and come out on the other side to win.”
In the long-course meet, IU junior Anze Tavcar and sophomore Blake Pieroni battled in the 200 long-course meter freestyle, taking first and second, just 0.07 seconds apart from each other. In the 100 LCM freestyle, Pieroni outswam Tavcar this time, finishing first and second.
Tavcar said during practice friendly competition is a good way to gauge where you’re at with your training.
“I don’t practice with (Pieroni) during the week except for Wednesdays,” Tavcar said. “So that is something we look forward to every week until we have a chance to race and fight it out during the meets.”
For the women’s 100 LCM backstroke, sophomore Kennedy Goss touched first, followed by sophomore Marie Chamberlain in third. The men took first and third in the event as well with Glover and sophomore Ryan Gordon. Goss went on to win the women’s 200 LCM over sophomore teammate Rachel Matsumura.
Senior Tanner Kurz took first for the Hoosiers in the 100 and 200 LCM breaststroke.
Coming in at first and second in the women’s 100 LCM breaststroke was freshman duo of Lilly King and Miranda Tucker. Tucker and King took first and second in the 200 LCM breaststroke as well. In her last event of the day, Tucker also touched first for the 200 LCM individual medley.
Swimming in a long-course meet wasn’t much of an adjustment for IU. Some of the swimmers practice three times a week with the long-style.
“I like swimming long course,” King said. “Olympics are long course, World Championships are long course and pretty much everything we swim over the summer is long course, so it was nice to be able to go back at that again. It’s all about pacing yourself, and I think everyone stepped up today.”
Tavcar grew up in Europe and has been swimming long-course meets for most of his life. He said it felt good to be back swimming at their home pool to focus on fundamentals.
“You have to spread your energy a little bit more for long course and without practicing it, it is easy to get lost and lose your pace,” Tavcar said. “Swimming at home allowed me to focus on every turn, because I know exactly where the line is on the bottom of the pool and that gave me a big advantage.”
Another first place finish came in the men’s 200 LCM butterfly with Irwin. Sophomore Brandon Colonis finished in third. Colonis also finished first in the 200 LCM individual medley.
Khalafalla and Tavcar touched for first and third in the 50 LCM freestyle as well.
IU divers took first and second in the men’s 1-meter platform with sophomore Cody Coldren and junior Joshua Arndt. Season-bests were also recorded in the men’s 3-meter, this time with Arndt taking first and Coldren for second.
For the women, IU senior diver Lacey Houser finished first in the women’s 1-meter platform with a career-best mark, while junior Michal Bower placed second, with a season-best of her own. In the women’s 3- meter platform, Houser took first again followed by Bower in third.
All four of the Hoosier divers recorded NCAA zone qualifying marks.
“The extra emphasis showed today,” Looze said. “We definitely broke through and won some close races, handling adversity well. We still disqualified one of the relays, so we still have work to do. I told the team, it might take doing some extra stuff after practice to get over the hump there.”
